Roderick George McBethClick to enlarge

Cleric, historian.

Born in Kildonan in 1858, son of Robert McBeth Sr and Mary McLean, brother of John McBeth and Robert McBeth Jr, he was an early graduate of the University of Manitoba (BA 1882, MA 1885) and was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1886. He subsequently studied for the ministry at Manitoba College and Princeton Seminary, and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1891. Most of his ministry was conducted in Vancouver, although he also ministered at Winnipeg, Carman, and Paris (Ontario). He wrote extensively about his ancestors in a series of autobiographical books on the early development of the Canadian West: The Selkirk Settlers in Real Life (1897), The Making of the Canadian West (1898), The Romance of Western Canada (1918), Policing the Plains (1922), and The Romance of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1924). He also wrote on church subjects, including Our Task in Canada (1912) and The Burning Bush and Canada (no date). He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Winnipeg (1885) and the University of Manitoba (1929). He died suddenly at Vancouver, British Columbia on 28 February 1934.